Customer Reviews

The Last Oil Shock: A Survival Guide to the Imminent Extinction of Petroleum Man (UK Paperback) Strahan

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I did this review for a New Zealand newspaper, but it applies worldwide.

We all know it is coming, don't we? Petrol prices escalating, Maui fields producing less and less, Government trying to fire up a coal-fired power plant at Marsden Point to substitute for increasingly expensive oil, Australia going to nuclear-based power generation - obvious, isn't it? This exceptionally informative book will explain why this is happening and what to expect in the future.

Mr. Strahan is a British investigate journalist who has undertaken the task of becoming extremely well-informed about what is referred to as "peak oil" - the point at which oil and gas recovery reaches a maximum and then goes into irreversible decline. This is no breathless "conspiracy book" but a factual resume by an author who has that unusual knack of making the complex easier to understand. His massive bibliography of source material goes on for 25 pages, so those want to debate his facts can easily find the source. This is not an opinionated book but one crammed with objective information and intelligent analysis.

Mr. Strahan starts out with the science of petroleum exploration then continues with a fascinating history of how information is gathered about present supplies and future reserves. He adds detail as to how governments and oil companies have reacted to what should be obvious, discusses the ramifications of international politics and oil depletion, then finishes with a critique of the hard-core realities of substituting various other sources for power generation as petroleum products inevitably run dry.

One can argue climate change, its causes, and possible solutions, but there is no argument here - oil recovery has hit "peak" in most areas and is declining everywhere but the Mideast, and even here the reserve figures may be deliberately overrated. Please buy this book - educated people simply must understand the full dynamics of this apparently insoluble problem.

This book is a serious read. The first chapter or so looks at oil as the rationale for the war in Iraq. Seems like good investigative reporting by the author who seems to know a lot more than most politicians about a really important and worrying issue.

The majority of the book is spent explaining - in some statistical detail - the fact that the world's oil production will start to fall inexorably within the next decade or so. The last part of the book was more digestible but alarming, talking about the consequences and necessary / probable solutions to the oil fields running dry.

I'd recommend this book as a good follow up to "The Weather Makers" which explains the dangers of global warming and focusses on coal rather than oil.

It looks like we are all in for some big changes ahead, and those of us that have read up on these issues are going to be able to help save the planet, or at least cope better than most.

For once the blurb is accurate. This is the best of the spate of books on Peak Oil. Ignore it at your peril.

However, the version through the Amazon reseller is much too expensive. You can purchase it for less from Amazon Canada, where the book was published.

The Last Oil Shock is an excellent book. David Strahan has written an informative, insightful and, yes, even entertaining book that delves into the history and causes of Peak Oil, the various "cures" put forward by oil companies and others in Big Energy and Big Politics, and the likely ramifications of both Peak Oil and its alleged--should I say "threatened"?--cures.

The book has a slight UK-centric approach which is a refreshing change from the USA-centric perspective of most other books on the subject. American readers should not be deterred. There's just enough of the British situational viewpoint to understand how universal the problem is, and the uniqueness of the various flavors that energy depletion offers from country to country.

Strahan is first of all a superb journalist. He is objective in his facts, backs up his statements, and offers both breadth and depth in his account of Peak Oil. But Strahan also has a position; one which enhances, rather than obscures, his objectivity. His wry, even biting, sense of humor and his observation of the energy predicament's ironies and, alas, frequent hypocrisies, come through in a manner that allows his facts to be enjoyable digested all the way through the book.

I highly recommend reading The Last Oil Shock.

Mick Winter is the host of DryDipstick.com and the author of Peak Oil Prep: Prepare for Peak Oil, Climate Change and Economic Collapse

The author has invested an incredible amount of energies to interview some key people in the oil industry, and to unveil the evidence of world oil depletion. Probably the best documented books on this topic I have ever read.

I had the great honor of exchanging a few emails with Mr. Strahan about my work with Saudi Aramco Oil Company. Mr.Strahan's The Last Oil Shock is one of the best Peak Oil books written. Anyone concerned about Peak Oil and their children's future should read this book. Now! Best Regards, Keith Renick